I am an avid reader, and just by sheer coincidence each of the last two books I’ve read have had a honeybee theme throughout. I can’t seem to be capable of watching TV or reading a book without finding a business application and I thought I’d share this one here.

First of all, I have always hated bees. I’m afraid of them even though I know their stings don’t hurt that much. I never realized how truly fascinating those little fuzzy buzzy creatures are.

Let’s, for a moment, imagine that your business is a beehive and you’re the Queen Bee. After all, she’s the most important person in the hive - her sole job is to lay eggs. Without eggs, there are no bees so nothing else can happen. You are also the most important person in your business, goes without saying if you’re a ’solo-preneur’. But all entrepreneurs are responsible for getting new clients and ensuring all daily operations run smoothly.

Each beehive is a whole world in itself. Each bee has a role to play, it’s a very well-organized society. The Queen’s job is to lay the eggs, but there are worker bees who make the honey, there are guard bees who make sure no robber bees get in, there are scout bees who go around finding the best flowers, there are nurse bees who make sure the babies are cared for, there are bees who tend to the Queen - fanning her and caressing her, there are even bees whose lot in life is to remove the dead bees from the hive.

If it were the Queen’s responsibility to make honey, guard the hive, scout for nectar and remove dead bees, how many eggs would get laid?

As a business owner, every second you spend typing up letters, writing newsletters, blogging, entering contacts in your database and researching stuff on the Internet is eating up your egg laying time. Rather…the time you should be spending on meeting with clients, finding new ones and just do what you want to be doing.

Honeybees have a lot to teach us, don’t they? What sort of chaos would a hive be in if the Queen were running around trying to do everything herself? She’s smarter than that. If a Queen bee could give you some advice, she’d probably tell you to go get yourself a virtual assistant so you can focus on what’s important. The future of your company depends on it just as the future of the Queen’s hive depends on her focus on egg laying.

Honeybees invented the art of delegating as far as I’m concerned!

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Most entrepreneurs are concerned about what we’ll do if all of our clients disappear one day and we’re left with no income. That’s a very real fear, and of course we should have a contingency plan in place (consistent lead generation, adequate savings, etc.) for such an occasion.

However, how many of us small business owners really prepare for success?

Does your business plan allow for the “best case scenario”? What happens if your company explodes with more clients than you can handle? Do you have some great colleagues to refer people to? Have you formed an alliance with anyone? How will you keep up with your email if you are maxed out doing client work? How do you keep writing proposals if you’re so buried under administrative tasks you can’t see over the pile? Do you have additional staff? Contractors available to pitch in?

You see, in business it’s usually a good thing to get more business. (’Duh’) We all want growth, otherwise we’d be very foolish to be pouring our souls into our ventures.

That being said, while we all want to be successful are we all ready for it? We all say we want to have “X#” of clients or be bringing in “X$” as our goal, but are you prepared to handle that if you get there sooner than expected?

The problem is when you get swamped with work, it’s usually too late to get yourself out from that place. It’s hard enough to keep your head above water without scrambling to formulate a plan.

Mann Made Time has recently exploded. I have been blessed with several referrals over the past couple of weeks that has brought my business to a new level. I’m very glad that I have a project manager and an online collaboration tool, otherwise this would not be pretty. As it is, we’re experiencing some minor growing pains, but if it weren’t for the system I’ve been building with my PM over the past half year or so, well…I would just rather not go there

So…instead of focusing your back up plan only on what happens if all your clients disappear, look at it from the other side.

Are you ready for an onslaught of business?

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Are you aware of how beneficial press releases are to your marketing efforts?

Anytime something newsworthy happens in your business, you should write a press release about it. Whether it’s a new service offering, a new office location, a promotion, an award, anything people didn’t know about yesterday could make for a good press release. You can go ahead and submit your release to local media outlets, but more importantly, spread it on the Internet.

Whenever you write a press release, it should be submitted online. Why? Well, each time you have a press release that links back to your site, that helps your SEO. Not every press release that gets submitted online will be picked up by anyone, in fact, it’s kind of rare. The biggest benefit is the boost to your SEO.

When writing a press release, there are a few things to keep in mind. First of all, you need a great headline. I often spend more time coming up with a headline than I do writing the content of a piece. If the headline stinks, it doesn’t matter what’s in the rest of the press release, it won’t get read.

It’s important to include a link to your site near the top of the press release, and that’s also where the main newsiness (nice word, eh?) of the piece should be, in case it gets chopped up. You should have a quote in there somewhere, so if it does get picked up by someone, they don’t necessarily have to call you for a comment. At the end of the press release, it’s good to have some ‘About’ information about your company or yourself, but it’s not totally necessary.

After reading ‘Publicity Hound’, Joan Stewart’s newsletter yesterday, I discovered a mega cool tool for press release analysis: Press Release Grader. You can copy and paste your PR in there and it will tell you how well you’ve scored for marketing purposes. The last one I wrote got a 90% which is cool. It also gives feedback on how to improve it. What a great tool!

If you suck at writing aren’t great at writing,  outsource the task. I write a lot of press releases, and can pump them out pretty efficiently. Another option is to give it your best shot, then send it to an editor to polish it up. I heart Angela Smith of Accu-Asisst for this task.

So, what’s happened in your business lately that merits a press release? It’s GREAT free marketing for the bootstrapping entrepreneur.

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So, you might be wondering why my logo is adorned with balloons, presents  and a birthday cake. Just so happens, June is a big month for Mann Made Time. We’re celebrating two years in business and it’s my birthday month - one more year in my twenties…reason to celebrate, right?

After two years in business, I have really been able to find out which services I love the most and the ones I prefer to outsource to my team members. My biggest love is writing, and I’ve been lucky enough to be doing more and more of it for my awesome clients. I’m toning up my marketing message to attract more copywriting projects and that excites me.

When you first start your business, nailing down a target market and niche can seem very overwhelming and a lot of people don’t believe they should focus their marketing on any one place. In a sense, that’s a good idea. Offer a bunch of services (ONLY ones you’re great at) and then decide where your biggest strengths lay and which things you enjoy doing the most. Then carve out your niche and decide on a target market. If you started your business with a target market that you don’t feel the love for after some time has passed, change things up. There’s no rule saying that you have to target the same bunch forever. There’s no rule saying you can’t upgrade your skills and find yourself a niche you really love.

Your business is your business. You’ll get out of it what you put into it. If you’re doing work you love for people you truly enjoy working with you’ll be more motivated and success will come easier. You’re the boss. Do you look forward to the work you have on your plate when you wake up each morning? For a time, I wasn’t enjoying what I was doing. Now, it’s like Dr. Phil says. If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. I feel privileged to provide the services people pay me well to do. It really doesn’t feel like work and what could be better than that?!

Oh. And happy birthday to me!!!

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I’m going to bare a bit of truth about myself here so please don’t judge me! When I started my business, I had a dedicated office in the third bedroom of my home. That worked because at the time, my only daughter was a year old and was relatively easy to keep an eye on. Then, when I was expecting my second child last summer, I quickly realized that set up was just not going to work. There was no way I could work in that room with an infant and a two year old to watch constantly. So, I moved my office into our family’s main living area. It allows me to work whether the girls are watching cartoons, playing or sleeping. However, this summer I’m hiring a ‘Mother’s Helper’ and am going to move my office back to where it originally was so that I’ll be able to close the door on everyone for a few hours a day, and close the door on Mann Made Time when it’s family time.

My business has grown significantly since those early days in a separate area of the house and I know I could do a better job at organizing my office than I have been. I can organize anyone else, but when it comes to organizing myself, well, it’s kind of the same as the mechanic who always drives a jalopy. You’re too busy making a living doing what you’re good at to actually do the same for yourself.

I have found a few things that work for working from a home office with youngsters and I hope some of my readers will contribute their tips as well. Here are mine:

• I keep an office spike on my desk to stab receipts with, so they’re all there at the end of the month for me to organize.
• I have an old fashioned Hilroy scribbler for each client. I put all of their contact details, usernames and passwords and other frequently needed information on the inside cover. Anytime I speak with a client on the phone, I grab their notebook and keep all notes there in one place for them so I can retrieve details quickly.
• There is a Rubbermaid file tote thingy that I keep these scribblers and project details in that I can bring with me if I need to work from the kitchen, or when I had a dedicated office I could haul it with me when I needed to be mobile.
• I always keep some old cell phones, cameras, calculators and daytimers in a desk drawer to occupy the little ones since they always to play with things that they shouldn’t have.
• The beloved laptop. I am using the same notebook computer I did when I started my business two years ago. For Mann Made Time’s second birthday, which coincides with my “last-year-before-turning-30″ birthday next month, I’m purchasing a new machine. I think I’ll go with a desktop this time since my notebook will still allow me to work from anywhere in the house, which is key when you work from home with children.
• Make your space off limits! I often discover that my tape has gone missing, or my fancy stapler has disappeared. Where do pens go? Post-it notes get sucked into a black hole and it seems as soon as I buy them they are gone forever. I don’t think it’s the little ones either, I think it’s the other grown up I share my home with. When Mann Made Time moves its headquarters over the next couple of weeks, there will be some new rules in place. When the door is closed, nobody goes in, whether I’m there or not! I think I’ll be getting myself a sign to attach to the door with my office hours.

Anyone else have some tips? I’d love to hear them!

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